Set at West Point, The Long Gray Line is unique in its focus on a career military man who never sees battle, yet is profoundly concerned with the human toll of war and the factory-like nature of a school that produces generations of professional soldiers. Based on the life of Irish immigrant Marty Maher, who spent fifty years teaching at West Point, Ford blends Irish mysticism and the immigrant experience with an exploration of the rigidity of military discipline. Ultimately siding squarely with the necessity of the military lifestyle, the film is nonetheless a deeply emotional examination of the human cost of war from the point of view of a man forever on the sidelines.